Coach: "You guys are the fodder"

We have a BJJ tournament coming up on Saturday. Near the end of tonight's class, the coach pointed to me and another guy next to me and said "Every tournament needs fodder. You guys are the fodder. Just try and get back to your knees". Now, I certainly take the positioning advice on board. I do need to concentrate on bailing out back to my knees. But referring to one's students as fodder seems unusual to me. I'm not particularly insulted by it because I probably am among the bottom 2-3 guys in my class, and the guy is the plainest of plain speakers, but it just seems..odd. Why would a coach say that? Would it be to try and get us to simplify our games? To fire us up into ****-you-I'll-show-you mode? Just being a dick? Obviously you guys wouldn't know for sure but I am interested in possible theories, especially if you've had instructing experience.

The first tournament I ever won (4th I competed in or so) was a no gi tournament and I had literally been to no-gi class less than 6 times. I wanted to do the no gi as a warmup and to help calm me down for the gi competition. Next thing I know, I submitted 4 opponents and won a gold medal. Why? Because I had no expectation of winning, so I calmed down, relied on the technique, and was ready to work out of bad positions (At least 3 of the subs were from the bottom with me being down points). Maybe your coach is trying to help you stay calm and perform better without the nerves or anxiety. Or maybe he's trying to fire you up by pissing you off. I truly hope one of these is the case.

If he's a decent coach with a good track record, then he probably said it as a verbal kick up the arse to get you fired up for the competition, if he has a history of being a prick, then he's a bully and pretty lousy motivator. Either way train hard and prove him wrong.

I'm fighting in the white belt division. I've been training about 20 months, at least 9 and more like 12 months from blue, if I had to guess. The coach is a BJJ black belt who is generally considered a very good instructor, as far as I've heard. When I say he's plain spoken, he doesn't really hang **** on people (as we say in Australia), moreso stuff like "If we're going to have our balls in each other's faces, we may as well all be friends", "Ok, we need to escape his triangle because we fucked up and let him break our posture" etc.

I am guessing that you are entering the Asia Pacific Championships in Melbourne. Should be a good event with well over 200 entrants. Don't beat yourself up before the event has even happened, there is every chance you could do great on the day and pull off a number of wins. At the South Australia BJJ state championships last week I saw alot of Noobies like myself do resonably well against seasoned grapplers. Just go in there with the mindset of having fun and win or lose it will be a fucking blast.

Right before my smoker (thats what you guys call padded fights which don't count towards your amateur record right?) my coach told me he'd just seen my opponent eat a live chicken and that if i wanted we could skip the fight and go get some ice cream.

It was pretty funny when i entered the ring and my opponent was a 16 year old ginger.